The Strange Enigma of Race in Contemporary America

Racism Without "Racists"

Almost no one wants to be seen as racist, yet racism persists.
Most people (except white supremacists) claim to not see color and aspire to a society where people are judged by character, not skin color.
Many whites believe minorities are responsible for the "race problem," accusing them of "playing the race card" and demanding divisive programs like affirmative action.
Whites often think that if minorities stopped dwelling on the past and worked harder without complaining about racial discrimination, everyone could get along.

Racial Considerations in America

Despite claims of color blindness, racial considerations affect almost everything in America.
Blacks and other dark-skinned minorities lag behind whites in various aspects of life:
- Are three times more likely to be poor.
- Earn about 40% less than whites.
- Have about an eighth of the net worth of whites.
- Receive inferior education, even in integrated institutions.
- Black-owned homes are valued at 35% less than comparable white-owned homes.
- Experience limited access to housing due to exclusionary practices.
- Receive impolite treatment in commercial settings.
- Pay more for goods like cars and houses.
- Are targets of racial profiling by the police, leading to over-representation in arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration.
- Racial profiling on highways: "driving while black."
Significant racial inequality exists despite widespread claims of color blindness.
Whites have developed explanations that justify racial inequality and absolve them of responsibility.
These explanations stem from a new racial ideology called color-blind racism.
Color-blind racism explains racial inequality as the result of nonracial dynamics, moving away from biological or moral inferiority arguments like those used in the Jim Crow era.
Whites attribute inequality to market dynamics, natural occurrences, and minorities' cultural limitations.
- Example: Latinos' poverty rate is blamed on a relaxed work ethic ("mañana, mañana, mañana").
- Residential segregation is seen as a result of natural tendencies among groups ("Does a cat and a dog mix?").

The Shift from Jim Crow to Color-Blind Racism

Color-blind racism emerged as the primary racial ideology as methods for maintaining racial inequality evolved.
Contemporary racial inequality is perpetuated through subtle, institutional, and seemingly nonracial "new racism" practices.
Residential segregation is maintained through covert behaviors:
- Not showing all available units.
- Steering minorities and whites into specific neighborhoods.
- Quoting higher rents or prices to minority applicants.
- Not advertising units at all.
Economic discrimination: smiling face discrimination ("We don't have jobs now, but please check later"), advertising job openings in mostly white networks, steering people of color into poorly paid or limited-mobility jobs.
Political disenfranchisement: racial gerrymandering, multimember legislative districts, election runoffs, annexation of white areas, at-large district elections, and anti-single-shot devices.
White privilege is maintained subtly across various sectors (banks, restaurants, schools, housing), making racial readings difficult.
The ideology of color blindness seems like "racism lite" compared to Jim Crow racism.
Soft othering ("these people are human, too") replaces explicit name-calling.
Minorities' disadvantaged status is attributed to a lack of hard work rather than divine placement in a servile position.
Interracial marriage is viewed as "problematic" due to concerns about children, location, or the burden on couples, rather than explicit racial grounds.
Color-blind racism acts as a political tool that reinforces the racial order.
It functions as an ideological armor for a covert and institutionalized system in the post-civil rights era.
This ideology helps maintain white privilege without explicitly naming those subjected or rewarded.
Color blindness allows for the expression of resentment toward minorities, criticism of their morality and work ethic, and claims of "reverse racism."

Whites' Racial Attitudes in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Surveys since the late 1950s show fewer whites subscribing to Jim Crow views.
Decreased support for segregated neighborhoods, schools, transportation, jobs, and public accommodations.
Fewer whites hold stereotypical views of blacks (though the number is still significant).

Four Explanations for Changes in Whites' Racial Attitudes

Racial Optimists

Believe the changes symbolize a profound transition in the United States.
Early proponents: Herbert Hyman and Paul B. Sheatsley.
Sheatsley: White Americans won't follow racist governments or leaders; they are adjusting to an integrated society.
Recent proponents: Glenn Firebaugh and Kenneth Davis, Seymour Lipset, and Paul Sniderman.
Firebaugh and Davis: Trend toward less antiblack prejudice across the board.
Sniderman and Lipset: Advocate color-blind politics to resolve racial dilemmas.
Sniderman and Edward Carmines: A commitment to color-blind politics is a call for a politics centered on the needs of those most in need.
Problems with the Optimistic Interpretation:
- Relying on old questions framed in the Jim Crow era produces an artificial image of progress.
- Normative changes in the post-civil rights era require caution in interpreting attitudinal data.
- Mixed research designs (surveys and interviews) are recommended.

Racial Pesoptimists

Attempt to strike a balanced view, suggesting progress and resistance in whites' racial attitudes.
Classical example: Howard Schuman.
Schuman: Whites' racial attitudes involve a mixture of tolerance and intolerance, acceptance of racial liberalism principles, and rejection of policies realizing those principles.
Pesoptimists are considered "closet optimists."
Schuman: Normative change in the US is real; whites have a hard time translating those norms into personal preferences.

Symbolic Racism

Changes in whites' attitudes represent the emergence of symbolic racism.
Associated with David Sears and Donald Kinder.
Symbolic racism: A blend of anti-black affect and traditional American moral values (Protestant Ethic).
Symbolic racism has replaced biological racism as the primary way whites express racial resentment.
Kinder and Sanders: Prejudice is expressed in the language of American individualism; blacks don't try hard enough and take what they haven't earned.
Criticisms:
- Slipperiness of the concept of "symbolic racism."
- Claim that the blend of antiblack affect and individualism is new.
- Failure to explain the emergence of symbolic racism.
Indexes of symbolic racism differ from those of old-fashioned racism and predict opposition to affirmative action.
Kinder and Sanders: Changes in blacks' tactics (civil disobedience to urban violence) led to new racial resentment fueled by welfare, crime, drugs, family, and affirmative action controversies.

Group Position

Whites' racial views represent a sense of group position.
Advocated by Lawrence Bobo and James Kluegel; similar to Jim Sidanius's "social dominance" and Mary Jackman's "group interests" arguments.
White prejudice is an ideology that defends white privilege.
Bobo: Laissez-faire racism emerged due to socioeconomic changes in the 1950s and 1960s, fitting the US's modern economy and polity.
Laissez-faire racism blames blacks for their poorer economic standing due to perceived cultural inferiority.

Compatibility with Color-Blind Racism

Arguments of symbolic, modern, and laissez-faire racism traditions align with color-blind racism.
Color-blind racism rearticulates traditional liberalism elements (work ethic, merit rewards, equal opportunity, individualism) for racially illiberal goals.
Whites rely more on cultural than biological tropes to explain blacks' position.
Whites do not perceive discrimination as a central factor in shaping blacks' life chances.

Theoretical Disagreement

Symbolic racism and laissez-faire traditions are anchored in the prejudice problematic, interpreting racial views as individual psychological dispositions.
Bobo's conceptualization is closer but still retains the notion of prejudice and interracial hostility.
Color-blind racism model is based on a materialist interpretation, seeing actors' views as corresponding to their systemic location.
Views of actors are corresponding to their systemic location.
Expressing "resentment" or "hostility" toward minorities is irrelevant for maintaining white privilege.
David Wellman: "Prejudiced people are not the only racists in America."

Key Terms: Race, Racial Structure, and Racial Ideology

Whites and people of color disagree on racial matters due to different understandings of "racism."
For whites, racism is prejudice; for people of color, it is systemic or institutionalized.

Race

Race is a socially constructed category (accepted among social scientists).
Notions of racial difference are human creations rather than eternal categories.
Racial categories have a history and are subject to change.
Three Approaches to the Constructionist Perspective:
- Because race is socially constructed, it is not a fundamental category of analysis.
- Social constructionist view is given lip service, but “racial” differences are discussed as if they were truly racial.
- Race, like class and gender, is constructed but has a social reality.
- After race is created, it produces real effects on those racialized.

Racial Structure

When race emerged, it formed a social structure (racialized social system) that awarded systemic privileges to Europeans (whites) over non-Europeans (nonwhites).
Racialized social systems (white supremacy) became global.
A society's racial structure is the totality of social relations and practices that reinforce white privilege.
The task of analysts is to uncover the mechanisms for reproducing racial privilege.

Why Racial Structures are reproduced

Actors racialized as "white" receive material benefits from the racial order.
They maintain their privileges.
Those belonging to subordinate races struggle to change the status quo.
Racial structures exist because they benefit members of the dominant race.

Racial Ideology

Frameworks used by actors to explain and justify (dominant race) or challenge (subordinate race) the racial status quo.
Dominant race frameworks become master frameworks.
Karl Marx: "The ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force."
Ideological rule is always partial; subordinate racial groups develop oppositional views.
Those who rule have the power to shape the views of the ruled even in periods of hegemonic rule.